Regarding the mercs in themes….
I obviously have no proof, but I suspect it’s more to do with Merc/Minion sales falling off a cliff, as people couldn’t use them in themes….
Thats also why I suspect we’ll see Character Warjacks in themes, because thats quite expensive models that stay stuck on shelves because people aren’t playing that particular warcaster/warlock in themes…

That’s an interesting point. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re allowed to have capitalistic motives, but ideally, we want the game to trump those desires.

I’m happy to hear that they’re going to slow down the insane CID pace they’ve been pushing recently. It’s hard enough to keep track of the models without them changing out from under me every month!

Anyway, I still think the Merc thing is a bad idea from the “I want to play non-theme-list” perspective, but if they offer a wide range of Theme lists that let me take most/all my models anyway… then I have fewer problems, I suppose.

I’m a little surprised by the future inclusion of merc/minion options in theme lists, but not that surprised. Especially as merc options were otherwise basically going to be dead options in the wast majority of cases. PP have been quite clear I think that they want theme lists to be the way the game is played. So making theme lists more flexible/better is the logical place to go. The idea that non-theme lists could make up with the increased flexibility always seemed dubious to me, especially as more themes would be released. At best there would be an interim period of time where ‘vanilla’ lists would still be reasonable viable not I didn’t expected it to last.

What concerns me more is what happens to those odd units you have. For instance I got 1 unit of McThralls. I don’t really like thralls enough to make a force out of them though, so should I just sell them now? At least I got enough Banes to actually make a list but I’m not feeling inspired by the idea. My favourite bit of Cryx is the Satyxis so maybe I should just get rid of anything that doesn’t go in that theme? So instead of being a Cryx player I’m a Black Fleet player? It feels to me like that is not too far off PPs idea for where the game will go.

Oh, in my thoughts about theme forces I completely forgot to rant about Skarre3. She is on a pirate ship? Or half a pirate ship? In a land battle? How @*&$*”£ stupid is that? I don’t even really care about her rules, the model concept is so dumb I’m not interested. And I really like the other two. Her concept art was enough to seriously dent my enthusiasm for what was otherwise a bunch of cool stuff for Cryx. With a cool new Skarre to play with I’d definitly have been back and trying to push some Warmachine at the club again. With a dumb new Skarre, not so much. But I’m having a lot of fun with Guildball.

Who knows, maybe the Black Fleet theme will be cool, I hope it will be. I’m also waiting to see how the Dawnguard theme for Ret is. But for now though, enthusiasm is low.

Absolutely respect this position.
For me, I’m more excited by the news that they’re going to stop changing the rules every goddamn week. I mean, I’m all for CID, but it’s impossible to play the game with everything changing constantly.

I haven’t seen the artwork for Skarre, so I can’t really comment, but I can’t say the concept of a ship hauled around on a wave of bound souls is any sillier than, say, semi-sentient calculators with enormous artillery capable of the staggering range of 60 feet. Or the world’s best snipers being able to put a bullet into a target all of, what… 72 feet away, but not 73?

But all that aside, aesthetics *is* absolutely part of the reason we play the game, and why we pick the Factions we do, right? And if it doesn’t jive with you (like Grymkin for either Nick or I), then that can be a huge dampener on your enjoyment of the game. So I certainly don’t blame you for feeling the way you do.

I also get what you’re saying about the unit selection thing. And who knows, maybe PP will iron it out to make sense again? I dunno. I remain cautiously optimistic.